Colonel Who Reported Communist Cadet Slams West Point Leadership

posted by Patrick Granger -
2 months ago

Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Heffington issued an open letter to West Point graduates earlier this week blasting the superintendent, commandant, and dean of the military academy for contributing to a “culture of permissiveness.”

“The Superintendent refuses to enforce admissions standards or the cadet Honor Code, the Dean refuses to enforce academic standards, and the Commandant refuses to enforce standards of conduct and discipline,” the letter charges. “The end result is a sort of malaise that pervades the entire institution.”

Heffington’s eye-opening letter describes systemic problems at West Point that he says have led to a decline in honor, standards and meritocracy. The end result of said neglect, according to the lieutenant colonel, is a current “embrace of mediocrity.”

“Every fall, the Superintendent addresses the staff and faculty and lies,” he asserts. “He repeatedly states that ‘We are going to have winning sports teams without compromising our standards,’ and everyone in Robinson Auditorium knows he is lying because we routinely admit athletes with ACT scores in the mid-teens across the board.”

Heffington states that he has personally taught cadets who are “borderline illiterate.” In another section, Heffington laments what he refers to as West Point’s “nonexistent” academic standards, and takes aim at the dean:

Cadets routinely fail multiple classes and they are not separated at the end-of-semester Academic Boards. Their professors recommend “Definitely Separate,” but those recommendations are totally disregarded. I recently taught a cadet who failed four classes in one semester (including mine), in addition to several she had failed in previous semesters, and she was retained at the Academy.”